Racism in Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

The purpose of the book Cry the beloved Country, is to open the eyes of a population in South Africa.The book and author is trying to show racism that is slowly breaking up the diverse society and its people. Alan Paton is the author and is writing this book to show his point of view on the many injustices and racial hatred in South Africa, and he is trying and attempting to bring change and understanding to South Africa people, which are both blacks and whites.

In the novel Cry the beloved Country Alan Paton the author is stating the fact that not all blacks think and act the same. The first thing that caught my eyes that involved racism was when Kumalo takes a train from Ndosheni to Johannesburg. Since most of thewhite people in this book have cars of their own, the trains are usually filled with black people since of course a lot of them didn’t have the money to buy cars. The opportunity of high paying jobs were given to white since they were more “superior” and richer than blacks. The train was divided into sections for Europeans and non Europeans which were black people and white people. This is a big example that Paton was trying to show, segregation goes on and it still lingers on.

In the book there is a mission house and another incident happens there. At the Mission House Kumalo who is very religious meets with the priests. The priests are both black and white. The priests serve the community, and they try to find out what has happened to the black community in Johannesburg. The priests were talking about black people and how white Johannesburg people are afraid of the black community committing dangerous crimes. They “think” and assume that white people are afraid of blacks but In the book it shows that blacks are afraid of whites also, and a good example of that is the court case in which Kumalo’s son Absolum pleaded guilty to his crime. Absolum’s last words on the court day were “I was just scared” In Cry the Beloved Country white people are portrayed as powerful, rich, and superior. While in the book blacks are portrayed as “Low Life”, inferior, and “down market”.

The facilities in the city are very beautiful and high class. In Johannesburg, there are gold mines that have been discovered, big high and tall buildings, beautiful big and vibrant houses, and a big hospital that serves many Europeans. In the black communities, there is a hospital where they find several people lying on the ground, and the service that they serve the people aren’t very great. Their houses are “Comfortable” but not fancy but they don’t complain because they are happy they have a roof over their heads. There’s a big difference between both lifestyles and it's not just the looks but it's the culture, and family. Whites are to themselves and like their lavish lifestyles to themselves, on occasion there is some white people that will try to help like Aurthur Jarvis. The blacks share what they have, and try to support everyone no matter what.

In one way it’s not only whites being racist to blacks. Arthur Jarvis was a man that was dedicated to solving racial problems in South Africa. Arthur was killed by a black man which was who is Kumalo's son Absolum. Arthur was an innocent man just trying to make a difference, but because of “fear” of whites gave black people or people of color. Absolum thought it was ok to shoot him. This part in the book has a great deal to do with racism and it shows how corrupt Johannesburg has flushed and corrupted the minds of people and kids in South Africa and taught them to be scared of each other’s races, when in reality we should all live together in peace.